The picture of Arredondo wearing a cowboy hat and pushing Jeff Bauman, a bloodied man who lost both legs in a wheelchair, is among the most disturbing of the aftermath of the terror attack.

"My instinct was to run towards those people and jump that fence. I saw the ground covered in blood and then put myself into action," Arredondo said in an interview with NewsCenter 5's JC Monahan Wednesday. "I said 'God protect me.'"

Arredondo, who says he went to the marathon to meet with a group of National Guardsmen and military families who were cheering the runners and handing out U.S. flags, met Bauman for the first time since the attack on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old Nashua, N.H., native was not the first person Arredondo stopped to help, "I kneeled down to the ground to calm down a young lady who was hurt. I saw Jeff in a big puddle of blood and missing two limbs. I knew he needed to get out of there as soon as possible."

"It's a situation with no scripts. I think about the people and the families. It was just so devastating," he said.

Of the flags that he had been handing out, Arredondo had one left when the bombs exploded. He had lost track of it in the immediate hours after the attack, until he checked his pants.

"I find the flag in the back of my pocket and say 'Oh my God it is full of blood.'"

Even before Monday, Arredondo, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Costa Rica, had lived through more than his share of grief and time in the glare of public spotlight during his 52 years.

When, in 2004, several Marines came to his Florida home with news that his older son, Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, had been killed by a sniper in Iraq, the distraught Arredondo smashed the windows of their van, climbed inside and set himself on fire.

While many have called Arredondo a hero for his actions on Marathon day, it is not a mantle he chooses to wear.

"Jeff himself (is the hero) for being willing to survive – he is the hero," he said.

Bauman, who was at the race to cheer on his girlfriend, is recovering from his injuries at Boston Medical Center.

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzkokhar Tsarnaev rested their case in his federal death penalty trial Tuesday after presenting a brief case aimed at showing his late older brother was the mastermind of the 2013 terror attack.